FUTURE ROLE
of
INFORMATION
the
SYSTEMS
EXECUTIVE
John F. Rockart
Leslie Ball
Christine V. Bullen
December 1982
CISR WP #101
Sloan WP
0
#1431-83
1982 The Society for Information Management and
Management Information Research Center.
the
This paper appears in MIS Quarterly Special Issue, Dec. 1982.
The published version includes the annotated bibliography
mentioned in the preface.
Center for Information Systems Research
Sloan School of Management
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
-2PREFACE
In November, 1981, the SMIS Executive Council voted to begin a
research project to define a model of the information systems executive
of the eighties. The purpose of the model would be to help SMIS take a
proactive role with respect to membership professional development, and
provide conferences, speakers, articles and future research consistent
with the directions defined by the model. Richard G. H. Harris, Vice
President of Information Systems at Colonial Gas & Energy and a member of
the SMIS Executive Council and Leslie D. Ball, Associate Professor of
Information Systems at Babson Collegejagreed to lead the research
effort. In addition, John F. Rockart and Christine V. Bullen of the MIT
Sloan School, Center for Information Systems Research and Leo Pipino of
Babson College joined the team. The work was begun with the Executive
Council approval in November, 1981 and completed in August, 1982.
A preliminary model coming out of an extensive literature search and
based on several years of earlier research work done by the team members
was distributed for review to fourteen noted practitioners and
academics. Their valuable comments helped shape the interim model. On
April 15, 1982, a day-long discussion group was held in Chicago with the
research team and five respected practitioners. The interim model was
reviewed, debated and revised during this lively and constructive
session. The resulting version of the model was again distributed to the
reviewers who returned further comments.
The final version is presented here. While this document directly
represents the ideas of nearly two dozen SMIS members who participated in
the project, readers should recognize that it expresses the collected
thoughts of many other people as well. It is written as a final report
to the SMIS Executive Council in the form of a position paper to
eliminate the lengthy academic background and references normally
associated with such papers. A separate annotated bibliography was
produced which is a collection of the best articles found on the
subject. It will serve as a base and a model for further research.
We hope the model described in this paper will serve both the SMIS
Executive Council and the informations systems executive directly as a
set of guidelines for positioning themselves to meet the challenges of
the information systems function in the coming years.
-3There is a significant amount of uncertainty (one might even say
"confusion") about the role of the Chief Information Officer (CIO) in
today's organizations. The information management function itself has
expanded incredibly in the past two decades and appears on the verge of
even greater development. From an earlier emphasis on handling historical
accounting data only, computer-based systems today are intimately
involved with almost all day-to-day operations of the organization. In
addition, they have a rapidly growing role in the capturing, storing,
processing, and communication of all information of the organization
whether it be in numerical, graphical, text, or other form.
With this swift evolution and staggering growth of the function in
the last decade, it is clear that the CIO's role has changed and will
change further. Yet the relative newness of the function, and the
uncertainty (ifnot turmoil) surrounding the development and
implementation of computer-based technology in most firms over the past
two decades has left unclear the exact role of the "chief information
officer". Even the title of "CIO", or any other combination of letters
or words, seems awkward. A clearer definition, therefore, of the role,
and requisite personal and managerial attributes, of the person with
corporate responsibility for this function would appear increasingly
desirable.
It is for this reason that the Society for Management Information
Systems commissioned this position paper on the "future role of the
information systems executive". Our purpose is to present a "concept" of
this executive role which we believe is emerging in the early '80's. It
is hoped that this particular role definition can serve as a base for
further discussion and clarification of the new, evolving, and
increasingly important role of "chief information officer".
In the development of this paper, we have been influenced heavily by
several authors whose works appear in the attached bibliography. An
equal influence has been discussion and written input from several
information executives and others closely connected with the field. To
all these sources, we are grateful.*
* With the exception of this one, we omit footnotes. In retrospect, it
is difficult to assign a particular idea or thought to any single
source. Some of the ideas and conclusions we present have been voiced
many times, either verbally or in print. Some represent an amalgam of
thoughts. A few are ours alone. Moreover, the prime purpose of this
paper is to present a useful conceptual role description, not a research
treatise. We, therefore, eschew footnotes but list our sources at the
end of this paper. We have also attempted to be terse, To facilitate a
quickly readable "statement of position", rather than to be fully
explanatory in academic terms. Although we use the male pronoun
throughout, we recognize the fact that women, today, and increasingly in
the future, will fill the CIO role. Participants in a "discussion
session" on the CIO role and those who reviewed an earlier draft of this
paper are noted at the end. We drew much from them.
III
-4THE INFORMATION EXECUTIVE OF THE MID-80's
In the researchers' view, the attributes that the information
executive will need five years hence will be determined by the role that
must be filled at that time. The role, in turn, will be shaped by the
environment in which the CIO will exist, and that environmental scenario
will result from the relevant trends which will influence the state of
the business entity of the mid 1980s. As a result this paper is
structured from causal forces to the necessary attributes of the evolving
CIO role. In graphic form, the logic is as follows:
Relevant
Trends
Managerial
Environment
Scenario
Information Executive
Role
Necessary Information
Executive Attributes
-5RELEVANT TRENDS
Research in the field of forecasting suggests strongly that the most
accurate forecasts derive from examining the probable directions of
currently evident trends. One might take a wild leap into assuming a
drastically different scenario as espoused by some futurist, but the odds
are that one will be completely wrong. Moreover, the researchers feel
that there is a set of evident trends today which appear to have a strong
and continuing thrust. The only thing which might deter some of them
would be a major depression, and even though this is written in August of
1982, this does not appear likely. Briefly listed below are some key
trends which fall into the three categories of business environment,
technology, and users. These trends are:
Business Environment
o
Continuing inflation widening the gap between people and
hardware costs;
o
Increasingly aggressive national and international competition;
o
Shortage of talented personnel as a result of smaller
graduating classes;
o
Capital shortage;
o
Higher than "normal" interest rates, causing assets to remain
expensive;
o
Continued, sometimes extraordinary, changes in industry
structure and methods of doing business as the "second
industrial revolution" proceeds;
o
Pervasive changes in the workforce caused by the increasing
impact of technology at factory, white collar, professional
staff, and executive levels.
Increased managerial emphasis on planning, particularly
strategic planning (to adapt to an increasingly volatile, competitive
environment) by medium size and large organizations.
o
Emergence of the "remote worker" - individuals working in
facilities independent of "company facilities" - home,
temporary facilities, etc.
Rapidly Changing Technology
o
Ever more powerful and cost-effective hardware (of all types);
o
An increasing number of telecommunication innovations with
regard to price, capability and availability;
111
-6o
More and vastly improved end user tools;
o
Improved application generators and other programmer
productivity tools;
o
Rapidly expanding use of industrial robots and process control
equipment capable of automatically generating production data.
o
Increased availability of purchasable data bases;
o
Upsurge in the use of the computer as a personal communication
tool (e.g. electronic mail, conferencing, etc.);
o
Greatly increased use of "information data bases";
o
A vast, and growing, number of vendors of hardware, software,
telecommunications, and other information-oriented products and
services.
Increasingly Computer-knowledgeable and Demanding Users
o
More college graduates and others who believe the computer is a
necessary tool;
o
Increased general understanding of computer capabilities caused
in large part by home computers, increased media attention,
etc.;
o
"Demonstration effects" as conference speakers increasingly
illustrate the "latest computer-based approach";
o
Greater ability of users to buy their own hardware and software
as they become more knowledgeable and dropping system prices
increasingly fall within departmental capital spending limits;
o
Heightened awareness at all managerial ranks as a result of
increased direct marketing to users by computer vendors,
time-sharing organizations, software vendors, etc.
o
Ever better user education materials and usage guides.
MANAGEMENT ENVIRONMENT SCENARIO
The environment in which the information executive of 1985 will
exist will be uniquely determined by the interaction of these trends.
With respect to the information function, all organizations will be under
pressure to:
o
Automate as much as possible to achieve critical productivity
increases;
-7o
Utilize the flood of improved, diverse, and ever more capable
hardware, software, and telecommunications technologies to
improve business performance as well as efficiency.
o
Provide the newly sophisticated end users with the automated
tools which they are ready for and willing to use;
o
Revamp and improve many ancient accounting and operational
information systems to take advantage of the new technologies,
to reduce ongoing maintenance costs, and to ensure continued
operation.
o
Recognize that the "computer era" of the 70's has given way to
the "telecommunication network era" of the 80's and to
facilitate the convergence of many diverse formerly unrelated
functions (process monitoring, data processing, communications,
library, office systems, etc.) into a single "information
function".
o
Carefully address the question of restructuring both the
processes and the structure of the organization itself in line
with the opportunities presented by a richer communications
environment and the potential to make information more widely
available to all employees, customers, vendors and other
interested parties.
With the advancing pace of automation, the rate of increase in the
use of computer-based technologies is going to grow. Over the next
several years the disparity in computer hardware and telecommunication
price declines will lead, in an increasingly on-line world, to more
widely distributed processors, data storage, and systems people.
Computer usage will become vastly more widespread throughout the
corporation. The ultimate result will be that almost everyone in the
corporation will be a direct user of technology. Ever-more-important
telecommunication networks will provide vital links between the
individual user at his microprocessor-based workstation and a growing
number of libraries of corporate data. The challenge of managing the
information function in this ever changing, ever expanding distributed
processing, distributed user, distributed support staff world will
continue to escalate in its complexity.
As computer-based technology pervades the business, line managers
will be forced to become much more knowledgeable concerning it. They
will increasingly be involved in decision making with regard to computer
use. They will have to do this since both the percentage of their budget
allocated to computer-based systems will increase, and their opportunity
to positively affect operating results will become more highly dependent
upon new computer and communication technologies. They will no longer be
able to "sit on the sidelines and let the computer people do it." More
effective information systems planning, education, and communication
processes will be necessary to facilitate this involvement.
-8THE INFORMATION EXECUTIVE ROLE
The information executive's role will be shaped by this increasingly
technology-dominated, user management-involved environment. Several
aspects of this role are increasingly significant. These are the CIO's:
o
Diminishing direct line responsibilities,
o
Increasing staff orientation, and
o
Corporate responsibility for information resource policy and
strategy.
Diminishing Direct Line Responsibilities. It will be impossible for
the corporate information executive to maintain direct line management
control over computer-based technology throughout the company. Line
management of local hardware and much of the software development will be
thrust into divisions and departments. The role of the information
executive will thus become one of a corporate general manager with
increasing emphasis in his function on staff-oriented activities.
Increasing Staff Orientation. The need for the CIO to concentrate
on staff-oriented activities will be dictated by the need, in all
organizations, to have a "focal point" for the planning and facilitating
of the organization's move into the "information era". As a result, the
role of the CIO will be heavily oriented toward ensuring the appropriate
development of information systems strategies and long-range planning,
toward the facilitating and promoting of change through expanded
communication and education processes, and toward the development of
standards of all types, most particularly for data, for communication,
and for ensuring privacy and security in a total-access world. The CIO
will serve as the corporate "gate-keeper" for new technology and the
evaluation of this technology. To find time for these increasingly
important functions, he will need to be strongly proactive in
transferring accountability for line management of hardware and, where
applicable, software development to divisions and departments.
Corporate Responsibility for Information Resource Policy and
Strategy. The CIO will have the responsibility of assuring that new
opportunities presented by the technology are seized and that capital
expenditures for information resources are ranked according to business
need. In order to do this, the CIO must, in most organizations, be a
member of the top management team. The CIO will become not simply the
"custodian" of the data but more importantly, the corporate officer who
truly understands the interconnection between the information flow and
the business. Ultimately, we believe, the CIO will fill a role similar
to that of the Chief Financial Officer (CFO).
Despite all of the above, the CIO's role will not be exclusively
staff-oriented. Although it will be a decreasing part of the CIO
portfolio,
______·_____1
-^·-.^_^111__1_1_11I
._·^1__·1____._...__.
.._
-9th CIO will maintain direct "line" responsibility in a few areas. These
include the network, corporate data management, and, in most cases, the
corporate computing facility, common software development, and a changing
array of new "start-up" development projects.
INFORMATION EXECUTIVE ATTRIBUTES
The above trends, resulting scenario, and role(s) for the CIO, in
turn determine the skills and attributes an individual executive will
need in order to succeed in the mid-eighties. Many of these attributes
are not different from those needed by the information executive of
yesterday and today. However, the scope of impact of the information
executive will be greater, his role more broadly influential in the
future, making the mastery of several of these skills even more critical
for survival.
To manage successfully in the mid-1980's, the CIO will have to be
first, and foremost, a business-oriented general manager. However, he
will also need considerable understanding of the technology. This will
be acquired either through a span of years in the trenches of the
information systems function or in a thorough education program if the
CIO "moves in" from another corporate function. The CIO will be viewed
as the technological guru in an era when technology is imbedded in
virtually all aspects of the business. To carry out the joint general
manager/technology authority role, the CIO must have the following
attributes and skills:
o
Most important, the CIO must possess considerable political,
organizational, and communication skills. These are the
hallmark of top executives and without both these managerial
skills and the desire to exercise them, the CIO will be
ineffec tiVe.
o
Since the CIO must be part of the top management team to
effectively manage the information function, the CIO must be
involved in, understand, and have had experience in the overall
management of the business. To facilitate this, line
management experience in sales or production aspects of the
business will be extremely useful and, increasingly, a
prerequisite for the job. In short, the CIO will have acquired
requisite general management attributes through the varied set
of job experiences defined for all potential members of the top
executive ranks. Just as the CFO and the Vice President of R&D
are candidates for the Presidency, so should be the CIO.
o
Since it will be beyond a single human's capacity to be expert
in all the significant technologies, the CIO must understand
and be able to manage technological experts.
o
The CIO must view himself as a manager of managers (not of
things) and have developed the appropriate human resource
management skills.
III
-10o
The CIO must be heavily concerned with the medium-term and the
long-run. Key investments in hardware and software
infrastructure today have several-year lead times before they
can be put in place and be matured to a useful state. The CIO
must, therefore, be a planner and place particular emphasis on
strategic planning and the management of change.
o
Finally, the CIO must be increasingly sensitive to the human,
organizational, and social impacts of the new technology. The
pace of technological change is very great today. Sensitivity
to the pace of assimilation of these changes which is feasible
in the organization is necessary. So is sensitivity to (and
proactive planning for) appropriate methods of managing the
individual and organizational impacts of the "second industrial
revolution".
EVOLUTIONARY PROCESS
It is important to note that we are describing one point in an
evolutionary process. The role of the CIO is undoubtedly changing faster
than that of any other top functional manager. Yet the pace of evolution
differs significantly from company to company, as well it should, because
of several factors which include:
o
the economy,
o
the industry(ies) the organization serves,
o
company size and organization structure,
o
organizational objectives,
o
political forces within the organization,
o
the organization's stage of I/S growth, and
o
the personal and managerial attributes and skills of the
current incumbent of the CIO position
In short, the exact role of a particular CIO in a particular company
at a particular point is contingent upon the above and other factors.
Each of these differentiating factors could be discussed at length. Each
has a direct impact on the role of the CIO. As one example, the current
economy is causing centralizing, cost-cutting efforts in companies in a
number of hard-hit industries. This has hampered innovation in these
companies and virtually eliminated investments affecting anything more
than this year's financial results. In these companies the "status quo"
(whatever it may be) for the I/S function and the CIO will tend to linger
on. In general, most role changes will be aimed at facilitating greater
cost control.
As a second example, the size of the company clearly affects the
-11amount of direct control an information executive can exert over a
particular machine choice or application design decision which needs to
be made. And so on. There is undoubtedly a very lengthy list of
organization-specific "contingencies" which do, and will, affect the
exact shape of the CIO's role in each organization. Yet we believe that
a progression toward the role noted above is inevitable for most
organizations.
III
-12CONCLUSION
The authors recognize that the above description of the role of the
information executive is arguable. There are those who argue that the
information systems executive role will dissolve into a relatively minor
one of data administration and guardian of data integrity. There are
also those who argue that the I/S function will "disappear", being
absorbed into each organizational subunit. While the latter may occur in
the 90's, the profusion of technology, the infant state of the
information discipline, the state of user knowledge, and the need for
planning and standards to facilitate effective implementation of the new
information capabilities, argues for a much stronger, proactive role such
as we have described in most companies in the mid and late 1980's.
The CIO role described above appears to us to be the logical result
of an ongoing set of technical, organizational, and environmental
trends. In fact, the CIO role in a very few major companies has most of
the characteristics described above at present. Many other CIO's are
quite far along in the evolutionary process of converting their previous
roles to the one described.
The "future role" of the information executive described above will
not apply to all organizations today. Yet, as a generality, we believe
evolutionary forces are driving this role in the directions indicated.
If this is so, the attributes and skills of the CIO must evolve in
conjunction with the evolving role.